Report to Transparency International on The Analysis of ACCC’s Inquiry.
TITLE: Importance Of The ACCC’s Report: ‘How Digital Platforms Exert Power in the Australian Media Industry.’
TO: Transparency International
Background Information on Transparency International.
Transparency International (TI) is a global movement or organization working towards ending corruption. It has its presence in 100 countries. It was founded in1993 with its Headquarters in Berlin, Germany.
Transparency International has the following objectives or aims; – promotion of corruption-free practices in politics, business, civil society, and people’s daily lives. They are promoting accountability, integrity, justice, and transparency across the world, enhancing sound and objective professional analysis and high standards in matters related to administration.
Transparency international is engaged in several activities such as; building momentum on the anti-corruption Movement. They are raising awareness against corruption-related activities, devising, and implementing practical actions against corruption.
It represents the interests of citizens, businesses, civil societies, and other organizations in enhancing and ensuring fairness and corruption-free practices.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is an analysis of the findings and recommendations of the Report by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on How Digital Platforms exert power in the Australian Media Industry. The report was released in June 2019.
The report highlights several new concerns about the composition, delivery, and consumption of content by different media platforms in Australia. The concerns raised in the ACCC’s Report focuses on the impact of the digital platforms on competition among the three concerned stakeholders,’ i.e., content creators, advertisers, and consumers. These concerns, issues, and opportunities raised in the report are in line with the vision and mission of Transparency International for execution and to draw reference to.
There is a lot that needs to be designed and implemented in the Digital media platform industry to ensure that there is fairness between the major participants and the minor ones. Consumer protection and rights should be enhanced. These are part of the issues that call for the interventions and participation of Transparency International. All these have been considered since they are in tandem with the tenets and objectives of the organization.
INTRODUCTION
The report: How Digital Platforms Exert Power in the Australian Media Industry is based on the submissions made by consumers, digital platforms, and other stakeholders carried out in Australia. The inquiry compiled several issues related to the activities and impacts of digital media platforms.
The comprehensive report has put forward several emerging trends brought by the emergence of digitalization in media. It identifies the opportunities brought by the new system and further defines the gaps, especially in regards to competition and regulatory brought about by the digitalization of media.
Several issues conspicuously identified from the ACCC’s Report, which are relevant for the interventions of Transparency International, are Undue Competition from Digital Platforms. Regulatory disparities between the emerging Digital Platforms and Main media businesses.
This has set a stage of an unlevelled playground or business competition thus requiring the petition to ensure that the traditional media businesses are not driven out of business unfairly because of lack of a comprehensive, impartial and a catch-all market framework and regulations
KEY ISSUES
(i) Undue Competition from Digital Platforms
The ACCC Report’s key findings on the participation of Digital Platforms in the media industry in Australia have resulted in several unfair advantages to the Digital platforms at the expense of the other media businesses.
This undue competitive advantage has been occasioned by the imbalanced regulations applied to the media competitors. While the Digital platforms and the leading media houses offer the same services, especially with regards to advertising, the leading media houses are faced with numerous and restrictive regulations to ensure compliance, their counterparts; Digital platforms are faced with very few of the same.
Compliance costs and resources associated with the long and bureaucratic processes lead to the main media businesses incurring high costs, thus impeding to compete favorably alongside limiting their opportunities revenue. This happens when the Digital platforms are exempted from incurring high compliance costs and have the ease of rolling their businesses, thus gaining a disproportionate advantage in the competition arena between them and the main media businesses. This happens when both competitors are in the same market targeting the same consumers with almost the same products or services. Such a practice demonstrates elements of discrimination and unfairness to the main media businesses.
Continued practice of the current state of affairs to having a different set of compliance requirements will drive out of business the main media business in the long run because of the high costs of operations.
(ii) The regulatory imbalance between the emerging Digital Platforms and Main media businesses.
The current media Australian regulations govern the Digital platform under its sector-specific model; this creates a significant variance based on the delivery of news and journalism. The defamation laws which govern Digital Platforms have a challenge in enforcing copyright regulations on the Digital Platforms; this creates one of the significant disparity between the primary media businesses and The Digital Platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Google.
Several legislative restrictions limit advertising on TV and radio while they do not apply to Digital Platforms. There are minimal restrictions and codes by the regulatory organs imposed on Digital Platforms. There is also very minimal industry oversight on the processes and services provided by digital platforms.
The punitive advertising regulations placed on the media businesses impedes their commercial decision making and, in the long, the run curtails their opportunities in generating revenues relative to their digital platforms who are in a more flexible system.
Because of fewer regulatory and compliance requirements, digital platforms have the undue advantage of operating at lower compliance costs as compared to the main media businesses
Because of the disparities in the regulations, the consumers get exposed to advertisements and contents which are not subjected to comprehensive controls and oversight, thus affecting the vulnerable like children. Further to this, consumers may also get exposed to inappropriate advertisements. This is because, even though platforms such as Facebook having restrictions on age, minors still have access to Facebook. Instagram and Snapchat thus coming into contact with prohibited advertisements like those on alcohol. Other platforms, because of the flexible regulations, have managed to expose consumers to foods and activities like gambling as raised by the Public Health Association of Australia.
RECOMMENDATIONS;
(a) Creation of a leveled playground for fair competition between main media businesses and digital platforms.
(b) Enactment of legislation to capture the implications of the modern technological advancements and their place about media and advertising services’
(c) Harmonization of all the regulations regarding media and advertising to ensure that all the businesses are adequately provided for, consumer rights are reviewed and captured.
The application and implementation mostly require the intervention of Transparency International to follow up, push, and ensure adherence, especially among the policy-makers, implementers, and all relevant regulatory bodies.
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